Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalI just picked up an Rx
Got it with GoodRx, which saved me $60 over what my Part D wanted to charge me. I was talking to the pharmacy tech about this and told her I have GoodRx, SingleCare, and Optum, and for some of my Rxs, especially new ones, I have to go through Part D and all 4 of those to figure out which one will give me the best price. The woman behind me overheard the discussion and chimed in with her own woes, the subject of which was Ozempic, and opined that nothing would change "until we get a Republican president." It was really hard not to laugh in her face, but I said, "You need to do some research on that." She said, "Oh, I have," and I said "Apparently not, or you wouldn't keep voting for them," and walked out.
God, these people are delusional. And she was probably close to my age, too.
Over 30 dead dogs found in New Jersey home
Two people were charged with animal cruelty and child endangerment after police found the bodies of at least 30 dogs at a home in southern New Jersey this week.
Investigators believe up to 100 dogs died in the home, including many believed to have been buried on the property. Officers found both live and dead dogs in the residence on Monday, along with several cats and rabbits, the Evesham Police Department said.
Nine of the live dogs were taken to an animal hospital for treatment, including several that were in “extremely poor health,” authorities said. One of those dogs eventually had to be euthanized.
Rebecca Halbach, 35, and Brandon Leconey, 32, were arrested Monday in Evesham, a suburb of Philadelphia. Police went to the home after someone associated with an animal rescue group based in North Carolina, which had given the pair money to care for some of its dogs, reported seeing several malnourished and sick dogs around the property.
Authorities said a 9-year-old boy who lived in the home was removed due to the “unhealthy conditions” and was turned over to child welfare officials. It wasn’t clear if he was related to either Halbach or Leconey.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/30-dead-dogs-found-new-jersey-home-rcna102669
GRRRRRRRR! OMG, the stench must have been horrific! Poor puppers! And poor kiddo too.
Ruby Franke, Utah YouTuber, arrested on abuse charges after malnourished child in duct tape found
Ruby Franke, the Utah mom behind the now-defunct family YouTube channel 8 Passengers, was arrested Wednesday on child abuse charges after a malnourished child with open wounds and duct tape on their extremities was found, officials announced.
Franke's business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, was also arrested on the same charges. The two regularly collaborate on relationship and parenting advice videos for Hildebrandt's life counseling service ConneXions. ConneXions has been criticized in the past for its teachings about parenting, including prioritizing the organization's "principles of truth" over a person's children.
The Santa Clara-Ivans Public Safety Department said in a press release Thursday it received a report about a juvenile in need of help at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The juvenile was described as "emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities."
"The condition of the juvenile was so severe that they were seen by Santa Clara-Ivans EMS and transported to a local area hospital," the press release said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ruby-franke-vlogger-8-passengers-youtube-channel-arrested-child-abuse-rcna102731
My dad used to say, "Some people should be hung by the thumbs." Here's one. I was so angry when I read this I wanted to go after her with a 2 x 4...with nails in it....
3 States Just Banned Nonconsensual Pelvic Exams
Laws that ban nonconsensual pelvic exams took effect in Missouri, Montana, and Colorado this week, according to a Rewire report, and lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Ohio are still considering similar legislation as of this spring. The new laws prohibit medical staff from performing pelvic exams on unconscious or sedated patients without prior consent.
These laws aren’t the first of their kind—around half of states have them on the books, according to a review by the American Journal of Law & Medicine published last November. California became the first to pass a law prohibiting nonconsensual pelvic exams in 2003 and was later joined by New York, Oregon, Texas, Florida, and Arizona. The same review found 17 states—including Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi—haven’t passed or even introduced any legislation on the issue. But since the review was published last fall, at least a couple of the states included on this list (namely Ohio and Colorado) have passed or introduced legislation to ban nonconsensual pelvic exams.
Such legislation is necessary because the practice is alarmingly widespread. Research from 2005 revealed 75% surveyed medical students at the University of Oklahoma self-reported performing pelvic exams on patients who couldn’t consent, including unconscious patients. Céshia Elmore, a community organizer at New Voices for Reproductive Justice, told Rewire that nonconsensual pelvic exams present “a pipeline to sexual assault,” adding, “I did not give consent for you to basically be inside of my body, but you’re a medical professional, and I’m supposed to just trust you?”
The newly effective laws mark important progress, but it’s ultimately unclear how the states will require health care workers to obtain consent to pelvic exams from their patients. Some advocates have expressed concern that hospitals could neglect to seek informed consent from patients, beyond just requiring them to sign jargon-heavy forms they may not understand.
Nonconsensual pelvic exams are just one piece of a broader problem with sexual violence in the medical system. Data from the U.S. National Practitioner Data Bank indicates that from 2003 to 2013, 862 physicians faced state licensing disciplinary actions from 974 different cases of sexual misconduct. One survey revealed 10% of physicians report having engaged in sexual contact with at least one patient, which legal experts have characterized as innately “suspect” due to the power dynamics of a doctor-patient relationship. In particular, numerous high-profile investigations have exposed doctors for weaponizing anesthesia to sexually assault patients.
https://jezebel.com/3-states-just-banned-nonconsensual-pelvic-exams-1850789351
Patients have better outcomes with female surgeons, studies find
People who are operated on by female surgeons are less likely to experience complications and need follow-up care than when males wield the scalpel, according to two major studies that suggest male surgeons have important lessons to learn.
Doctors in Canada and Sweden reviewed more than 1m patient records from two separate medical registers and found that patients seen by female surgeons had significantly better outcomes with fewer problems in the months after the operation.
The researchers are investigating potential reasons for the differences, but the records suggest that female surgeons tend to operate more slowly and may achieve better results by taking their time in the operating theatre.
Dr Christopher Wallis, who led one of the studies at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto, said the findings should prompt male surgeons to reflect on their approach to surgery and learn from female colleagues for the benefit of their patients. “As a male surgeon, I think these data should cause me and my colleagues to pause and consider why this may be,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/30/female-surgeons-patient-outcomes-better-studies
From where I sit, I think it has a lot to do with ego.
Tucker: We're 'Speeding Toward Assassination' of Trump
Twitter podcaster Tucker Carlson is pounding home the theory that Democrats and the D.C. establishment are plotting to kill Donald Trump, this time claiming that we’re “speeding toward assassination” because “permanent Washington” has decided they “just can’t have” Trump as president again.
Appearing on anti-woke comedian Adam Carolla’s YouTube show this week, Carlson weighed in on his sitdown with Trump that aired on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, last week. That interview was planned by both Carlson and Trump—both of whom have their own grievances with Fox News—as counter-programming to the right-wing network’s GOP presidential primary debate that Trump skipped.
At one point, Carolla asked the former Fox News star what “the future holds” and whether “they are going to let Trump be president,” prompting Carlson to begin raging about the impeachments and criminal indictments the ex-president has faced. And, of course, Carlson also tossed in some Jan. 6 trutherism for good measure.
“They protested him, they called him names. He won anyway. They impeached him twice on ridiculous pretenses,” the far-right nationalist pundit exclaimed. “They fabricated a lot about what happened on January 6 in order to impeach him again. It didn’t work. He came back. Then they indicted him. It didn’t work. He became more popular. Then they indicted him three more times. And every single time his popularity rose.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-obviously-were-speeding-toward-assassination-of-trump
Oh please, Tuckums. Get a brain and get off your hobbyhorse.
Trump has 'moral compass of an axe murderer,' says Georgia Republican
Donald Trump has “the moral compass of an axe murderer”, a Republican opponent in Georgia said, discussing the former president’s legal predicament in the southern US state and elsewhere but also his continuing dominance of the presidential primary.
“As Republicans, that dashboard is going off with lights and bells and whistles, telling us all the warning things we need to know,” Geoff Duncan told CNN on Monday.
“Ninety-one indictments,” Duncan said. “Fake Republican, a trillion dollars’ worth of debt [from his time in the White House], everything we need to see to not choose him as our nominee, including the fact that he’s got the moral compass of a … more like an axe murderer than a president.
“We need to do something right here, right now. This is either our pivot point or our last gasp as Republicans.”
Duncan was the lieutenant governor of Georgia when Trump tried to overturn his defeat there by Joe Biden in 2020, an effort now the subject of 13 racketeering and conspiracy charges.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/29/trump-moral-compass-georgia-republican-geoff-duncan
Someone finally defined him perfectly, and I couldn't have done it better myself! Bravo, Mr. Duncan!
Birds - and ornithologists - flock to huge rubbish dump in Spain
Birds – and ornithologists – flock to huge rubbish dump in Spain
Storks, black kites and vultures feed at Los Barrios before migrating to Africa – but many now decide to stay
Stephen Burgen in Barcelona
Mon 28 Aug 2023 09.39 EDT
A vast rubbish dump in southern Spain has become a magnet for ornithologists as thousands of storks, black kites and vultures make a stopover to feed on food waste before beginning their journey across the Strait of Gibraltar.
“It’s especially useful for carrying out a census, as with so many birds in one place it’s easy to count them and to read their rings,” said Jesús Pinilla of SEO/Birdlife in Andalucía.
It is easy for the birds to find food among the mountains of garbage in the dump at Los Barrios, near Cádiz, that receives the waste of 400,000 people living in Gibraltar and the surrounding area.
Since July ornithologists have counted 210,000 kites and 125,000 storks crossing the strait.
But many Spanish and central European storks have chosen to stay in Spain, feeding from the dump, rather than make the long journey south. As a result, there is now a stable population of about 37,000 birds wintering there, according to SEO/Birdlife.
“It’s not new for birds to take advantage of this food supply, but what we are seeing is a change in migratory behaviour, especially in the case of white storks,” Pinilla said.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/birds-and-ornithologists-flock-to-huge-rubbish-dump-in-southern-spain
(apologies if this is in the wrong place, but I guess ornithologists qualify as birders too---and this must be fascinating, if somewhat stinky)
How Prigozhin Could Wreak Havoc From Beyond the Grave
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has left uncertainty in the wake of his presumed fiery demise in a plane crash on Wednesday, with his reported death raising questions about what the future holds for thousands of fighters that served in his paramilitary group, Wagner.
Prigozhin was listed as one of the passengers on board the Embraer business jet that crashed in the Tver region of Russia, according to Russia’s federal aviation organization. The BBC said confirmation that Prigozhin’s name appeared on the passenger list was “unusually quick” and had “raised eyebrows.”
Prigozhin, 62, has long been a symbol of violence and chaos among those most impacted by the relentless schemes of Wagner in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Once known as “Putin’s chef” for owning the Kremlin’s catering company, his legacy is now intertwined with the countless human rights abuse allegations that came with doing President Vladimir Putin’s dirty work.
Ultimately, his loud mouth—from the moment he publicly criticized the Kremlin, to his failed revolt in Moscow, to his final video message boasting about his fighters just a day before he boarded that plane—may have spelled his doom. After marching on Moscow to contest the way the Kremlin was running war operations in Ukraine in June, longtime Putin watchers surmised that Putin’s hitmen would likely have their knives out for Prigozhin before long.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-wagner-group-could-still-wreak-havoc-after-yevgeny-prigozhins-death
If he was even half as smart as I suspect, he had contingency plans.
Opinion-Trump and Ramaswamy Show Us How the Worst Get to the Top
How is it that tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy, a self-described “skinny kid with a funny name” who has never held public office, rarely even votes, and has been on both sides of numerous issues (including his take on Donald Trump), became the hottest commodity in the Republican Party? How was he considered one of the big winners of Wednesday night’s debate (second only to Ron DeSantis in the first post-debate poll), despite his unctuous and demagogic performance?
If you want my honest answer, why should we expect anything less?
In his classic 1944 book The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek wrote about “Why the Worst Get on Top.” As Hayek explained, “the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending towards totalitarianism.” Sound familiar?
I’m thankful that “totalitarianism” is not yet synonymous with America—but the larger point is that bad systems inexorably promote bad people who are willing to do what it takes to claw their way to the top. Today’s Republican Party is that kind of system.
I’ve been making this point since before Trump won the Republican nomination. And it has been repeatedly confirmed by Trump’s rise in the polls every time he gets indicted (we’re at four now)—and by his ability to effectively monetize his mugshot for fundraising purposes.
Ramaswamy’s rise is merely the latest sign of dysfunction in a party that idolizes not only Trump, but also Kanye West, Elon Musk, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (just to name three examples).
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-ramaswamy-show-us-how-the-worst-get-to-the-top
Boy oh boy, does this nail it!
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